Sheltered Literacy Lessons

The following is what I observed taking place during a sheltered literacy lesson:

To promote comprehension the teacher asked questions while showing the objects she was talking about. The class was learning about the grocery store and the process of fruits and vegetables being picked from the farm, taken to a grocery store, and purchased for people to take home and eat. As the teacher restated what they learned previously she held the object while saying its name and showing it to the students. When she showed the onion to each student and allowed them to hold it she repeated its name. SHe also asked questions like, "can you smell the onion?". This prompts the learner to smell the onion and remember that onions have a distinct smell. She also referenced the length of the cucumber when showing it to each individual student, "do you see the long cucumber?". Saying the vocabulary aloud prompted the students to also repeat the word themselves and practice using it. The teacher revisited the sequence of events the vegetables go through as I mentioned, and when she got to the grocery store stage she listed the grocery stores they are familiar with as points of reference. To accompany the grocery stores she held up grocery bags from each store that matched, so the students may recognize and respond to seeing the bag if they do not readily notice the name. Holding the object physically in their hands and referencing them over again throughout the lesson while talking and then singing a song helps the students see, hear, and speak the names of the food items. Leveled questions were also used. As the teacher asked what students liked to buy at the store, she differentiated based on their oral development. For a preproduction student she held two items up in front of his face and asked him which he liked to buy at the store, the object his eyes locked on gave her the answer and she restated it for the others to hear. For students who were speech emergent she asked them what they liked to buy at the store, and they were able to give her a one word answer naming the object or agreeing with someone else's by saying "cheese too". The student was able to show their understanding of the conversation by listing an object they liked to buy at the store. 

The students in the lesson were very verbal when looking at the pictures from the trip they took. They repeated names of objects they saw such as the names of fruits and vegetables. The students were very active when given the chance to hold the object, repeating its name as the teacher told it to them and handed it to them to feel. A song they had learned previoiusly was played for them to sing along and students followed their teacher as she held the objects up that matched each vocabulary term and said it along with her. The students showed to be understanding the content of the lesson and learning vocabulary and the context of each term.